When it comes to small businesses, the success of going mobile largely depends on a well-planned and smartly implemented communication system. Mobile small-biz professionals need to plug into best practices to keep everything running smoothly, out there on the road.

Let’s look at four ways to do just that, (with some advice provided by industry experts at eVoice to help out). It’s time for a quick study of mobile business 101.

1. Unify Your Company’s Mobile-Comm Profile

No matter how sophisticated your network of mobile employees, if you’re presenting your customers with the concept of a company, stick with a single central phone number that they can call. Thanks to technology, anyone can connect to the trunk number, and then get connected to a representative’s roaming mobile device.

In this age of cloud-based systems, that’s the reality. Virtual phone systems mean that the call, to the caller, will sound just like the conventional greeting and menu-option environment that they’ve come to expect. It doesn’t matter where the person picking up the call is actually speaking from.

2. Deploy Voicemail as a Prioritizing Tool

It’s an old trick, but it’s still a good one when it comes to protecting employees’ valuable time. Prioritize calls by what virtual-phone software tells them about the incoming caller allows them to divert certain conversations that they can get to further down the line, and bump the most important calls to the top of their response list. Virtual voicemail means that the mobile worker can — again, thanks to cloud technology — access the account from anywhere during the day.

3. Circumvent the Dead Zones: VoIP Helps Eliminate Carrier Loss

Versatile and professional communication from anywhere, in this mobile work-world: that does sound appealing.

But many of us know the truth about office-ing from our smartphones: dropped calls, cellular dead zones, these things mark the surefire path to frustration for the client and the small-business.

Clicking over to a virtual phone system can help, one that bounces hard-to-connect calls to the Internet and replaces a potentially shaky carrier with hardwired Wi-Fi whenever its possible to get online. It can make all the difference when that important call catches you out in the country. (Especially if you’re tethering for Internet anywhere.)

4. Cloud Conference

When it comes to demos, real-time brainstorming, and all the business-class communication that used to have come solely from the board room, the cloud is now the conference room for mobile workers.

According to one recent survey conducted by ConferBlogs, 77% of employees and owners of small- to medium-sized businesses say that web conferencing saves them travel time, travel costs, and connects them to more people than traditional face-to-face meet-ups.

There is certainly more than one option out there, when it comes to the tech that can drive these mobile communications strategies.

From Adobe Connect to MegaMeeting, from Vocalocity to the suite of tools that come with eVoice, the range of services — and prices — allow small businesses to pick and choose what suits them best.

Start with these tips and get your mobile workforce talking — and conferencing, and sharing desktops. All these points of integration will make them part of a dynamic and moving workforce, soon to be 1.3 billion strong.

With tax season here, many of us are rounding up receipts, checking our W2 forms, and meeting with accountants to get ready to submit our taxes. Now that so much of this information is stored online, data storage, backup, and sharing become even more important. MozyHome online backup and Mozy Stash can help make this record compiling and storage much easier.

Here is one Mozy user’s story from earlier this year:

“I met with my accountant recently to prepare my taxes and accidentally forgot to bring my W-2 form. Since the form is essential for tax preparation, my accountant was ready to postpone our meeting until I had all the proper documentation. But I had a Plan B: My W-2 form was in my work computer’s local Stash folder. So I pulled out my iPhone, opened the Mozy mobile app, found my W-2, and emailed it to my dumbfounded accountant sitting across from me.

My accountant is a MozyPro customer, so he understands the need for backup. But the fact my work computer synced with my phone and other computers to enable me to access my files anywhere was astounding to him! When I explained that Mozy Stash is available to MozyHome customers now and that it’d soon be available for him to use on his MozyPro account, he was chomping at the bit to use it for himself. He just may never need to carry a briefcase full of paper documents again!”

Get the most out of Mozy

Mozy’s backup and file synchronization features can make tax time a breeze. Do you use an Intuit product to help with your personal or business finances and taxes? Make sure to check out this post on backing up Intuit data.

As 2011 draws to a close, we pause to take a moment to review some of the biggest Mozy news of 2011. Here are the things we’re the most excited about:

Mobile

With the Mozy mobile apps, you now have access to your data on the go. Whether you’re on an iOS or an Android device, your backed up files (and the files in your Stash) are only a few taps away. The most recent update allows users to utilize personal key encryption for added protection.

Both MozyHome and MozyPro customers can now utilize the mobile app, and MozyPro admins have complete control over which users can access their device on their mobile device.

Participants in this year’s private beta for Mozy Stash have been able to get hands-on experience with Mozy’s latest innovation in data backup and storage. Stash, Mozy’s file syncing feature, allows users to sync files between multiple computers or devices quickly and easily.

Stash extends the availability of your files even more – even if a file isn’t being backed up on your computer you can access via Stash.

In late 2011, Mozy announced the Mozy Data Shuttle, along with major enhancements to the MozyPro service, allowing for much better server performance.

Customers using the Data Shuttle are able to perform their initial backup to a Mozy provided hard drive, which is then overnighted back to Mozy, greatly reducing the amount of time needed to complete the first backup. With the Data Shuttle, the days (and weeks) of waiting for your first backup to complete are history.

As we move into 2012 we look forward to continuing the evolution of the Mozy experience that customers have valued for years. We’ll be broadening the beta—and ultimately releasing—the Stash sync functionality. This will be a key cornerstone on which we plan to build additional features in 2012. In addition, we plan to add additional enhancements to MozyPro to make it easier to deploy and operate for our larger customers while at the same time adding additional enhancements for the mid-size and smaller businesses. Our plans are to make it a more complete solution for the full range of customer backup needs while expanding how people access and use the data that they are mirroring in the cloud. We look forward to an exciting year ahead of bringing additional value to our customers.

Have you found a use for your Mozy mobile app recently? From viewing backed up documents and spreadsheets on my iPhone, to syncing pictures between my phone and computer with the new Stash beta, the app is quickly becoming one of the most used on my phone.

All of the features packed in to this app make it a must-have for every Mozy customer. And the recent release of version 1.2 of the app for iOS devices even allows for the use of personal encryption keys, keeping the data on your phone that much more safe. (Don’t worry Android users – an Android version with the same capability is right around the corner!)

The awards are partially determined by fan vote, and we need your vote! You can nominate Mozy for each award once a day between Oct. 11 and Nov. 18.

Click on the buttons below to vote – you’ll be sent to the Mashable site to finish the process.

Nominate Mozy for the “Best Branded Mobile App”:

Nominate Mozy for the “Most Useful Mobile App:”

Don’t yet have the Mozy app on your phone? Get started here: mozy.com/mobile.

About the Mashable Awards:

“The Mashable Awards is a community-nominated voting program that recognizes the companies, people and projects that made the biggest impact on the digital landscape this year. Millions of votes will be cast in 28 categories such as Best New Gadget, Most Social TV Show and Must-Follow Brand on Social Media.”